Page 23 of Outbreak (Revolution X #1)

CHAPTER 22

Rue

“ G host!” I scream, panic ripping through me as I search the crowd for him, not seeing him among the living or the dead.

Less than an hour. That’s all it took for this shit to go sideways. One minute we’re sitting on the tailgate of his truck, just existing in the quiet night, and the next… Chaos.

We heard the screams before we saw them. Too many to count. We tried to make it inside the truck, but I got pushed into the ditch, and I have no idea what happened to Ghost. Tears prick my eyes as gunfire pops in the distance. The crowd running from the dead pushed me into the woods, and I quickly got trampled over.

My heart ricochets in my chest, and my stomach churns when I look down at myself. My body is coated in blood and guts. I was spared because the ones who trampled over me were being torn to shreds by the dead, and their bodies shielded me from getting eaten alive myself. The death in the air is overwhelming me.

I need to find Ghost. I need him. I need to get out of here.

My breaths come in labored pants, my lungs seizing with hyperventilation as I spin in a circle, trying to find the road. He was on the other side of the truck. Maybe he made it inside. Maybe he’s not lying dead on the pavement, waiting to come back and rip the flesh from my bones. Maybe I’ll let him. What’s the point anyway? If he’s dead and my friends are dead, what is the fucking point of trying to survive in a world that’s trying to kill you? I’ve lived most of my life like that, and now that I might be truly and utterly alone, I don’t know if I can do this on my own. I don’t know if I want to.

“Shit!” I yelp, my palms digging into the blood-soaked ground as I trip over something—someone. Scrambling to my feet, my eyes snag on something, and I hit my knees again, spewing the contents of my stomach all over the ground. Bright yellow converse.

When I can breathe again, I get back on my feet and keep walking. The dead passed through the woods a while ago, as I lay trapped beneath the mangled bodies. I don't know how long it takes for them to come back, so as soon as the growling stopped, I freed myself. I see lights through the trees up ahead, and a heavy mix of fear and relief fills me. What if I can’t find him? What if I do find him and he’s dead?

Pull yourself together, bitch. You’ve survived worse.

Hauling in a lung full of death-scented oxygen, I slowly release it and step over more bodies until the road comes into view, along with everything else.

“Oh my God,” I whisper, crouching down behind a tree in the woodline. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. The soldiers, standing on top of vehicles, are openly firing on anything that moves. The dead and living alike. If it’s outside the vehicles, it’s getting mowed down as they jump from car to car in sync.

I wait for them to move about ten cars down from Ghost’s truck before I make a run for it. With everything inside of me, I need him to be hiding in the truck, waiting for me. I’m sure he thinks I would run, and it wouldn’t be the first time, but I can’t. I just… can’t. I need to find him. I need him to be okay. That realization would probably make a therapist consider a career change, but I don’t have the energy or brain capacity to analyze that right now when every cell in my body is calling me to him.

My body hits the truck with a thud, and I rip the door open as quickly as I can. My heart sinks to the bottom of my stomach when I find it empty. “No,” I whisper, tears blurring my vision as I turn around and sink to the ground on my ass. “No…”

I’m alone. Again. I feel my body and mind retreating, going to the numb space I’ve carved out inside myself for when I can’t process shit. “No… no… no…” I whisper on repeat, staring into the trees but not seeing anything. The screams of death and gunfire are a fitting song to the despair I feel inside.

What am I going to do?

“Rue.”

Where do I go?

“Rue!”

Hands grab at my arms, and a face moves in front of mine. I blink a few times to clear the tears from my eyes, and Casey kneels in front of me. “We have to hide, Rue. Come on.”

“I can’t find him,” I say, staring back at her but looking through her at the same time.

“I saw him run into the woods after you. We can look for him when it’s safe. I need you to get up,” Casey says, but I can’t move. I can’t breathe. I was just in the woods. I didn’t see him. Which means he’s probably one of the torn-apart bodies.

“He’s dead?” I don’t know why I ask when I know the truth. Maybe I want her to lie to me.

“No. He was alive. And if you want to stay alive long enough to find him, you need to get up.”

Her words finally break through my mental walls and register. I can’t sit here and mourn without answers. I can’t give up before I’ve at least tried to find him. Taking another deep breath, I let her pull me to my feet. She wraps her arm around my waist, not seeming to mind that I look like Carrie— the original, not the remake .

“We’ll go look for him?” I ask as she walks us back to her van.

“As soon as it’s safe,” she says. “I promise.”

She opens the driver door, putting me inside before climbing into the back with her girls. When I turn around, I see them huddled together on the floor, terrified. “It’s okay. She’s okay.”

“She’s bleeding,” Violet cries.

“I’m okay. It’s not my blood. I’m not bleeding,” I say, trying to wipe some of the blood from my face with my hands, but they’re coated in just as much dirt and blood as the rest of me.

Casey sits back, rocking and soothing them as they softly cry. I turn back to the front, sinking down in the seat to stay out of sight. Still, my eyes stay glued to the treeline, wishing and waiting for that skull mask to appear.

Seconds, minutes, and hours pass by. The girls finally fell asleep sometime after the gunfire disappeared. I have no idea what time it is, but it’s still dark. As soon as the sun rises, I’ll find him.